A little show called Diff’rent Strokes introduced America to the equally little Gary Coleman who played Arnold, a cute and sassy orphan. The sitcom and the character were such a success that NBC promptly created an animated series, The Gary Coleman Show, to ride on the coattails of that popularity.

Instead of Diff’rent Strokes, the cartoon was based on the movie The Kid with the Broken Halo, which starred Coleman as a trainee angel trying to earn his wings. Coleman’s character from that movie, Andy LeBeau, was the main character in the cartoon, charged with a mission to perform 28 good deeds before he could go to heaven. When Andy wore his halo, he was imbued with certain angelic powers but he often tucked the halo away in his pocket so he could blend in with the other kids. As hiding places for halos go, the pocket wasn’t a particularly good one and Andy often lost the halo or had it stolen. The little aspiring angel reported to Angelica, his angelic superior and he was constantly facing obstacles thrown up by Hornswaggle, an agent of heaven’s competition. You know, the hot place downstairs.

The cartoon didn’t seem to capture the adorable power of the real, live Gary Coleman and it was canceled after just 14 episodes.